1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computers and communications equipment, and more particularly to a device for displaying presentations and for distributing presentations over a computer network.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Persons giving presentations frequently make use of presentation slides to display text and graphics to an audience. Historically, the slides consisted of transparencies which were projected onto a surface using an overhead projector. The use of transparencies has been largely supplanted by commercial presentation software applications, such as Microsoft PowerPoint. Presentation applications allow slides to be created and edited easily and quickly on a computer, and further enable the presenter to incorporate animation and multimedia effects into the presentation.
A typical mode of use of a presentation application involves creating a set of presentation slides and assembling the slides into a file, saving the file to the hard drive of a personal computer, and then transporting the computer to the presentation site. At the presentation site, the presenter connects the computer to a digital projector (such as an LCD projector) or other display device, starts the presentation application and opens the file. The application""s output is directed to the digital projector so that the slides may be viewed by the audience located at the presentation site. The presenter may advance the slides and perform related operations by engaging the appropriate keys on the computer or on a remote control device in communication with the projector.
It is frequently desirable to expand the presentation""s audience to include persons located remotely from the presentation site. The prior art includes various applications, such as Microsoft NetMeeting, which enable communication of presentation information and/or document sharing over a network between computers. However, such applications are frequently difficult to set up and configure, and each person desiring access to the presentation must have a copy of the application executing on his or her computer.
An embodiment of the invention comprises a presentation device for displaying presentation information (typically consisting of slides and documents), and for simultaneously distributing the presentation information to remote terminals over a computer network. The presentation device is preferably provided with a network interface for connecting the presentation device to the computer network, and a web server for transmitting web pages containing presentation information to terminals located at nodes of the network. The presentation device is further equipped with an interface for connection to a digital projector or equivalent display device so that the presentation information may be viewed by the audience at the presentation site (i.e., the site at which the presentation device and projector are physically located).
According to a typical mode of operation, a user of a remote terminal accesses a presentation by pointing a conventional web browser to a DNS name associated with the presentation device. A slide or other presentation information being displayed at the presentation site is simultaneously displayed in a browser window of the remote terminal so that the remote terminal user may view the slide. In one embodiment, the presentation device is configured to convert slides from a proprietary format to a standard graphical format prior to transmission to the remote terminal so that the slide may be viewed within conventional browser without requiring special plug-ins or controls. Certain of the remote terminals may be given presenter privileges, wherein a presenter toolbar having presentation controls is displayed at the remote terminal, and the user may effect predetermined presentation-related operations (e.g., selecting a presentation file or advancing slides within a selected file) by engaging the appropriate controls on the toolbar. In this manner, persons located remotely from the presentation site may give presentations through manipulation of the controls.
The presentation device may additionally generate an archive file consisting of images of all slides and/or other presentation information displayed during a presentation session. The archive file may be stored at the presentation device for subsequent retrieval by remote terminals and/or may be printed so that the presentation participants receive a hard copy of the presentation for their records.